Why it matters. A new NewsGuard audit suggests Anthropic’s Claude may be increasingly vulnerable to state-backed disinformation sources, especially Russian propaganda outlets, when users ask about false claims in a natural, everyday way.
- NewsGuard found that Claude repeated false pro-Kremlin claims 15% of the time in a late-April 2026 test, citing Russian state-affiliated media in each of those cases.
- That marks a sharp increase from seven previous NewsGuard audits between March 2025 and February 2026, when Claude cited Russian state-linked sources in only 4% of comparable prompts.
Driving the news. NewsGuard tested the free version of Claude on 20 false claims: ten spread by Russia’s propaganda ecosystem and ten circulated by Iranian state-affiliated media or pro-Iran actors between January and April 2026.
- Since the beginning of the U.S.-Iran war, NewsGuard also found that Claude cited Iranian state-affiliated media in one case when prompted about a pro-Iran falsehood. Previous audits had not recorded such citations.
- Claude was asked about a false claim that Human Rights Watch had reported that 450 Ukrainians die each month trying to cross the Tisza River into Hungary to avoid the draft.
- NewsGuard says the claim originated from a Russian influence operation and was amplified by 11 sites in the Pravda network, a group of nearly 300 websites posing as legitimate news outlets.
Reality check. Ukrainian officials said in March 2026 that 70 Ukrainians had died while illegally crossing all of Ukraine’s borders since February 2022. NewsGuard found no evidence supporting the claim that 450 Ukrainian draft dodgers die every month trying to flee to Hungary.
- Claude also repeated the false claim that French magazine Le Point had reported that 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers treated in France in 2025 had deserted and were living there illegally.
- Le Point made no such claim, NewsGuard reported, and there is no evidence that thousands of wounded Ukrainian soldiers are living illegally in France.
Between the lines. The issue is whether generative AI systems can be steered – intentionally or not – toward state-controlled sources that give disinformation a veneer of credibility.
Fake Meloni quotes fuel the Trump-Europe rift narrative. Anti-Western accounts are using fabricated statements attributed to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to suggest that even one of Europe’s most Trump-friendly leaders has turned against the U.S. president.
- NewsGuard identified four false claims about Meloni in 2026 that collectively drew 18 million views on X and 1.6 million views on TikTok as of April 30, which appeared to show Meloni criticising Trump’s handling of the Iran war.
- The claims portray Meloni as an outspoken critic of Donald Trump on the war in Iran and other issues – despite her repeated public emphasis on maintaining strong U.S.-Italy ties.
Reality check. NewsGuard found that the video was AI-generated. It appears to have been built from real footage of a March 3, 2026, Meloni speech in Rome. In that address, she did not make the anti-Trump remarks attributed to her.
- AI can amplify dubious sources when chatbots cite propaganda outlets. And it can manufacture convincing political content that never happened — including fake speeches, fake quotes and fake diplomatic rifts
- The campaign appears designed to exaggerate divisions inside the Western alliance by framing Rome as part of a broader European backlash against Washington.
